In the third part of the Turkish get-up series, kettlebell guru Jeff Martone talks about the advantages between the overhead-squat style and the traditional method.

Most often, it’s women who ask Martone if it’s OK to use the overhead-squat style.

“Yes, you can because you got crazy girl flexibility,” he says with a laugh. “That is a legit way to get up. For the vast majority of your audiences, they’re not going to pull it off.”

Plus, Martone emphasizes, there is more skill transfer to real-life experiences with the traditional method.

“For like law enforcement, military, fighters, the way I’m showing now is really the ideal to practice to get super-duper strong at,” he explains. “I don’t think you can get strong enough doing this drill.”

The difference between the two can be compared with the push jerk versus the split jerk.

“I will never cycle the split jerk at the rate I can the push jerk, and so power will be blunted,” says CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman. “I won’t be able to do as much work in the same amount of time.”

5 Comments on “The Turkish Get-Up Series: Style Advantages”

1

wrote …

WTF was that stream of conscientiousness he was going on about? Turtles and teeth knocked in and then at one point he went into a monologue about guns and made sound effects. This video, after the small segment with coach Glassman, was not useful.

That stream of consciousness refers to the 'Smart Standup,' as it's called in some martial arts circles.

If you're knocked backward and your attacker is at your feet, standing up in the conventional manner would be very dangerous. You'd be coming forward, toward the attacker, and then unfolding your body in a vertical line above your feet. In the process, you're off balance and vulnerable all kinds of kicks or punches.

The Smart Stand up would have you roll to one side. You plant the upside leg's foot on the ground, as well as your down-side hand. From there you can press your hips off the ground and shoot the downside leg backwards. It goes underneath and behind you. You've not gone forward, or any closer to the attacker, and you end up in a wide, low sumo styled stance. What's more, you can use that upside forearm to protect your head and face.

You can see that in his version of the Turkish Get Up, which also has the advantage of not moving the kettlebell laterally during the lift, which could make all the difference in a maximum level attempt.

The CrossFit Journal is a chronicle of the empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed CrossFit program. Our mission is to provide a venue for contributing coaches, trainers, athletes, and researchers to ponder, study, debate, and define fitness and collectively advance the art and science of optimizing human performance.